Exporters shipped just 125,876 tons of milk powders, cheese, butterfat, whey and lactose in January, down 23% from a year ago and the lowest since December 2012. Total overseas sales were valued at $401.5 million, down 31% from last year and the lowest since July 2012.

While Fonterra’s GlobalDairyTrade (GDT) offer quantities and forecasts are genuine estimates of product availability at the time of publication they can change as views of future events or trends in supply and demand factors change. Forecasted offer volumes over the next 12 months have been increased by 18,720MT with 8,575MT occurring over the next 3 months and the remainder impacting February and March 2016 as their plans for next supply season develop.

More than 99% of milk tested at 2,000 dairy farms was drug residue-free, according to FDA. Testing for 31 residues was performed at farms that were identified as having a previous drug residue violation in tissues from culled dairy cows at slaughter.

The GlobalDairyTrade index rose at the March 3rd event for a sixth successive auction, extending to 28% its recovery so far in 2015. However, the pace of increase at the latest auction slowed to 1.1%, with an average selling price of $3,374 per ton. The results were mixed across products, with a small drop in whole milk powder prices, which accounts for the vast majority of volumes traded, but sizeable gains for skim milk powder, butter and cheese.

January 2015 milk production totaled 16.5 billion pounds, according to USDA’s preliminary data, up 2.1% compared to January 2014. USDA’s latest Dairy Products report issued March 4th highlighted non-fat dry milk up 19.4%, dry whey up 9.3% and skim milk powder down 30.% from a year ago. The report also shows stocks of nonfat dry milk at 239.8 million lbs., as of January 31, 2015, up 0.6% from December 2014 and 60.8% above those a year ago.

Arla Foods is pleased to announce that, along with their current EU-origin products, they will offer a wider range of country-specify SMP and BMP products to buyers on the GlobalDairyTrade online auction platform. Beginning March 17, 2015, Arla Foods will offer registered GDT bidders BMP from Sweden, and SMP from Germany and from Sweden (both medium heat).

Glanbia Ingredients Ireland has officially opened its new state-of-the-art dairy processing facility at Belview port in Co Kilkenny. Glanbia has spent €180m on the project to date. The world-class processing plant has the capacity to produce up to 100,000 tons of nutritional dairy powders a year, making it one of the biggest facilities of its kind in Europe. Ireland currently supplies 10% of the world's infant milk formula but the hope is to increase production by 63% over the next five years.

In 2014 there was a flurry of inbound investment activity by Asian dairy companies, mostly China, into the New Zealand and Australian dairy sectors. However Rabobank warns that ongoing growth in import requirements by Chinese and wider Asian dairy companies shouldn’t be taken for granted. In a recently-released report "Magnetic milk – the lure of dairy investment down under", global agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank says a specific focus for overseas investors in New Zealand dairy has been on securing access to liquid milk and ingredients for infant formula.

The price of milk is likely to remain stable despite the expected dip in supply and high demand during summer, thanks to the bountiful inventory of skimmed milk powder in India The last increase in milk prices was nearly nine months ago. Low export of skimmed milk powder (SMP) this financial year will keep the milk prices in check. Kuldeep Saluja, managing director, Sterling Agro, said, “India produces around 100,000 tons of SMP every year. This financial year exports have not been more than 30,000 tons. There is enough inventory in the country. It would be liquidated when the production drops in summer.”